


[birthday cake emoji]

by egocentrifuge



Category: Mythical Entertainment, Rhett & Link
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 11:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egocentrifuge/pseuds/egocentrifuge
Summary: Christy slaps Link's ass as he leaves the house, and when he pulls into Rhett’s driveway to take him to work there’s a text waiting for him:You got this.–Link doesn’t got this. As morning slides into lunch and Rhett’s not-so-gently suggesting Link take him out to eat, Link’s no closer to confessing than he’d been four hours ago.
Relationships: Christy Neal/Link Neal, Jessie McLaughlin/Rhett McLaughlin, Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 9
Kudos: 49





	[birthday cake emoji]

Link’s fiddling with his hair when Christy finds him, which he only knows when her arms wrap around him from behind.

“You look nice, Neal,” she teases, soft and warm. “What’s the big occasion?”

He abandons his hair after a few more swipes through it to rest his hands on her wrists, rubbing his thumbs against her pulse. It’s firm, steady. A tangible representation of what she’s been in his life. 

Link tries to muster up a smile for her but the butterflies in his stomach have other ideas and he ends up just staring at her grin in their reflections helplessly.

“Aww, baby,” Christy murmurs. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do it,” he confesses. He feels like he might vomit. “I - I should cancel, I think I’m coming down with something.”

Link starts to step away from his wife but she tightens her grip on him.

“Yeah,” she agrees, voice steely. “Cowardice.”

“Come on, Chris - ”

“No, you listen to me,” she interrupts. “Do you want this or not?”

“I…” Link takes a deep breath, holds it. Admits, on the exhale, “Yeah.”

“Then you gotta make a move,” Christy goes on, more softly. “It’s not like you to not go after something you want, baby, and it’s - it’s been thirty-five years.”

“Yeah,” Link agrees. He turns in her arms until he can kiss her, rest their foreheads together. “Yeah, okay.”

She slaps his ass as he leaves the house, and when he pulls into Rhett’s driveway to take him to work there’s a text waiting for him:

_You got this._

–

Link doesn’t got this. As morning slides into lunch and Rhett’s not-so-gently suggesting Link take him out to eat, Link’s no closer to confessing than he’d been four hours ago. Still, he indulges Rhett - he buys him four freaking McRibs and can’t stop himself giggling like a moron the entire time Rhett’s shoving two disgusting processed monstrosities down his gullet.

“I got a gift for you,” Link tells Rhett as they’re stopping for gas, which isn’t what he’d meant to say, but it makes for a good story and he gets to see Rhett idiotically stripping his shirt off in public so, hey, it could be worse.

But then there’s things to film and the office party to be had and before Link knows it he’s dropping Rhett back at home, shouting out the window to Jessie to be careful with Rhett’s back tonight - he’s an old man, after all.

Rhett gives him the finger as he heads inside, laughing, his birthday gift draped over his arm; Link’s already shifted the car into reverse when he realizes Jessie is coming down the driveway. 

“Oh,” he says, stupidly, then even more idiotically: “What’s up?”

Jessie hooks her arms over the open window, leans in.

“Don’t drink over dinner,” she warns him. “You’re coming back after to pick him up for your date.”

“Our - ” Link starts, breaks off to laugh, cheeks flaming. “I don’t know what Christy told you, but I - I didn’t actually - ”

“My gift to him,” Jessie interrupts, smiling. “And to you. You’ve got tickets for eight o'clock in that little theatre he likes. I’ll text you the reservation.”

“Oh,” Link manages. The butterflies are back, stronger than ever. “You didn’t have to - I mean.” He takes a deep breath, focuses on being grateful. “Thanks, Jess. I appreciate you.”

“You’d better,” she laughs, and leans in to kiss his cheek. When she pulls back, she winks at him more salaciously than the wife of his best friend has any right to.

“Careful with his back, Neal,” she teases. “He’s an old man now.”

–

Traditionally, Rhett’s the one with sweaty hands, but Link can barely hold onto the steering wheel by the time he’s back in the McLaughin’s driveway. He checks his hair for the umpteenth time in twenty minutes, makes sure no dinner is left between his teeth, and _screams _when there’s a rap on the window.

“You asshole,” Link complains, veins thrumming with adrenaline on top of everything else, now, as he leans over to open the passenger side door. “I can’t believe…”

He trails off in the face of both Rhett’s laughter and the mile of linen-covered leg that comes into view as Rhett climbs into the passenger side. Rhett’s wearing slacks Link vaguely recognizes from a red carpet and a button down that’s indecently undone and Link’s words fail him for the third time that day.

Rhett leans back against the headrest after he punches the massage button for his seat, still laughing as he rolls his head towards Link with an easy smile. It doesn’t fade as he raises his eyebrows at Link’s open mouthed staring, the almost offended furrow of his brows.

“I give you a heart attack or what?” he mocks, starting to reach towards Link’s neck as if to check his pulse.

It’s still impossible for Link to speak, but as it turns out, there was a much simpler route to getting his point across. He leans in before Rhett has a chance to flinch and presses a kiss to the corner of his smile in lieu of doing something truly mortifying like kissing Rhett's teeth.

Before Link can do something else truly mortifying like abandoning his new Tesla and asking the wife of the man he's just kissed for a ride home, the hand Rhett’d been extending towards Link wraps around the back of his neck, holds him there. Rhett leans just far enough back to see Link’s face. His eyes are half-closed as he takes in Link’s defiant frown, the barely-suppressed panic.

“Well,” he drawls after a few seconds, lips twitching. “That’s one way to say happy birthday.”

Link finds himself tugged back in, realizes Rhett’s kissing _him,_ now, and the laugh bubbles up unbidden and effervescent.

“Come on, old man,” Link finally breaks away to whisper, cheeks aching from smiling. “It’d be a pretty shitty date if we missed the movie.”

“Would it?” Rhett asks, though he only steals one more kiss before his hand slides down to rest on Link’s knee. 

Turns out, nothing needed to be said, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> find me at egocentrifuge dot tumblr dot com for so many more drabbles that don't meet my strict requirements for crossposting to ao3 (they're under 1k lol) plus all my ongoing fics!


End file.
